September 2017 Taylor Hours The Edition September By: E. Kirk Monday to Thursday: InfoDesk: 9:00-5:00 In honour of the 10th anniversary, we’re reprinting news pieces 8:00-11:00 from 2007. 8:00 - 9:00 InfoDesk: 9:00 -5:00 Fridays: Saturdays: 10::30—9:00 InfoDesk: closed Poor Pluto demoted again Academic study hall Poor Pluto. Not only has it been demoted from the status of with self-service availa- ble planet to “dwarf planet”, it has recently been discovered that it is not even the biggest of the dwarf planets. Eris, another dwarf Sundays: 10:30 - 9:00 InfoDesk: 10:30-5:00 planet in the solar system, has a mass of approximately a third more than Pluto’s and is about half the size of the moon. Brown Research Help Desk Research Help: Staffed: and Schaller (2007) were able to deduce Eris’ mass through Monday to Friday: [email protected] the orbit of Eris’ moon, Dysnomia. They also calculated Eris’ 11:30-3:30 density, putting it around the same density as Pluto. Now that other dwarf planets are being discovered, it is unlikely that Pluto will ever regain planet status, but it will always have a Alcohol shrinks the special place in our solar system and our hearts. brain While it should not come as a surprise that drink- ing excessive amounts of alcohol isn’t good for your brain, a new study presented at the Ameri- can Academy of Neurology's 59th Annual Meeting, suggests that there is a negative correla- tion between alcohol consumption and brain vol- ume. Overall, the study found that participants who had more than 14 drinks per week had an average 1.6 percent reduction in brain volume compared to participants who didn't drink. While the participants were aged 34 to 88, there is nothing to suggest that these findings cannot be generalized to drinkers of other age groups such as university students, for instance. References Brown, M. and Schaller, E. (2007). The mass of dwarf planet Eris. Science 316, 1585. Paul, et al. (2007, May). The Effect of Alcohol Consumption on Total Brain Volume: The Framingham Heart Study. Poster session presented at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology, Boston, MA. www.lib.uwo.ca/taylor @westernulibsTAY www.facebook.com/taylib .